The following is a treatment of South Korea since the Korean War. For a discussion of the earlier history of the peninsula, see Korea, history of.

South Korea to 1961

The First Republic

The First Republic, established in August 1948, adopted a presidential system, and Syngman Rhee was subsequently elected its first president. It also adopted a National Security Law, which effectively prohibited groups that opposed the state or expressions of support for North Korea. Rhee was reelected in August 1952 while the country was at war. Even before the outbreak of the Korean War, there had been a serious conflict between Rhee and the opposition-dominated National Assembly that had elected him in 1948. The dispute involved a constitutional amendment bill that the opposition introduced in an attempt to oust Rhee by replacing the presidential system with a parliamentary cabinet system. The bill was defeated, but the dispute continued at Pusan, the wartime provisional capital, where the National Assembly was reconvened.

When the opposition introduced another amendment bill in favour of a parliamentary cabinet system, Rhee in 1952 countered by pushing through a bill that provided for the popular election of the president. Later, in 1954, Rhee succeeded in forcing the National Assembly, then dominated by the ruling party, to pass an amendment that exempted him from what was then a two-term limit on the presidency. Under the revised constitution, Rhee ran successfully for his third term of office in May 1956. His election for the fourth time, in March 1960, was preceded by a period of tension and violence. Amid massive student demonstrations, which culminated in a major event on April 19 with many casualties, Rhee resigned under pressure and fled to exile in Hawaii, where he died in 1965 at age 90.

The Second Republic

The Second Republic, which adopted a parliamentary cabinet system, lasted only nine months before it was overthrown by a military coup in May 1961. A figurehead president was elected by both houses of the legislature, and power was shifted to the office of Prime Minister Chang Myŏn, who was elected by the lower house by a narrow margin of 10 votes.

The Chang government made some strenuous efforts to initiate reforms. In a society laden with social and economic ills accumulated over a long period of time, however, it failed to cope with the unstable situation created by a violent political change. Rampant political factionalism only made the situation worse. With the ultimate source of authority now vested in the office of the prime minister, all factions, conservative and moderate, engaged in constant maneuvering to win over a group of independents in order to form a majority in the legislature. Before Chang had time to launch a full program of economic reform, the leadership of the ruling Democratic Party was crippled by factional strife within its ranks.

Military rule

The 1961 coup

On May 16, 1961, the military seized power through a carefully engineered coup d’état, ushering in a new phase of postliberation Korean politics. The military junta, led by General Park Chung Hee, took over the government machinery, dissolved the National Assembly, and imposed a strict ban on political activity. The country was placed under martial law, and the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction (SCNR), headed by Park, took the reins of government and began instituting a series of reforms.

In November 1962 the SCNR made public a constitutional amendment bill that provided for a strong president and a weak, single-chamber National Assembly. The bill was approved by a national referendum one month later. A series of events unfolded in the first half of 1963. In February Park announced that he would not take part in the civilian government to be formed later in the year if civilian political leaders chose to uphold a nine-point “political stabilization proposal.” However, as a result of bitter turbulence within the ruling junta and a chaotic situation created by the proliferation of minor political parties, Park soon changed his mind and proposed that military rule be extended for four years. The proposal met vigorous opposition from civilian political leaders, but some 160 military commanders, most of them generals, supported the extension. In April Park, under considerable domestic and international pressure (particularly from the United States), announced a plan for holding elections toward the end of the year. Park was named presidential candidate of the newly formed Democratic Republican Party (DRP) in late May.

The Third Republic

The election for president of the Third Republic took place on October 15, 1963. Park narrowly defeated the opposition candidate, Yun Po Sun, former president (1960–62) of the Second Republic, who had remained in office as a figurehead at the request of the junta to provide constitutional continuity for the military regime. When political activity was permitted to resume, Yun led the mustering opposition groups and became the presidential candidate of the Civil Rule Party. In May 1967 Park was elected to his second term of office, and the DRP won a large majority in the National Assembly. Members of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) and its candidate, the twice-defeated Yun, claimed fraud and refused for some time to take their seats in the National Assembly.

During his second term, President Park faced the constitutional provision that limited the president to two consecutive four-year terms. Amid considerable political turmoil created by the demonstrations of opposition politicians and students, the DRP members of the legislature passed a constitutional amendment that would make a president eligible for three consecutive four-year terms. The amendment was approved by a national referendum in October 1969. In the presidential elections held in April 1971, Park defeated Kim Dae Jung of the NDP; however, the NDP made substantial gains in elections for the eighth National Assembly, securing 89 seats as against 113 seats won by the ruling DRP.

The Yushin order (Fourth Republic)

In December 1971, shortly after his inauguration to a third presidential term, Park declared a state of national emergency, and 10 months later (October 1972) he suspended the constitution and dissolved the legislature. A new constitution, which would permit the reelection of the president for an unlimited number of six-year terms, was promulgated in December, launching the Fourth Republic.

The institutional framework of the Yushin (“Revitalization Reform”) order departed radically from the Third Republic. The National Conference for Unification (NCU) was created “to pursue peaceful unification of the fatherland.” The conference was to be a body of not fewer than 2,000 nor more than 5,000 members who were directly elected by the voters for a six-year term. The president was chairman of the conference. Until 1987 the NCU was charged with the power to elect the president, and under this arrangement, Park was elected without opposition in 1972 and was reelected in 1978.

Political unrest increased following the August 1973 kidnapping from Tokyo to Seoul of Kim Dae Jung—who had been conducting an antigovernment campaign in the United States and Japan—by agents of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA). From August 1978 the opposition movement became stronger. The expulsion from the National Assembly of the new NDP leader Kim Young Sam in early October 1979 escalated what had already been growing political tensions between the government and opposition leaders during the year into a major national crisis. Antigovernment riots broke out in Pusan and Masan and were suppressed by government troops. The crisis culminated on October 26, when President Park was assassinated by Kim Jae Kyu, his longtime friend and director of the KCIA. Prime Minister Choi Kyu Hah became acting president under the Yushin constitution and was formally elected president in December by the NCU.

In the meantime, the country was placed under stern military rule by General Chun Doo Hwan. An armed uprising of students and other citizens in Kwangju in May 1980, calling for the full restoration of democracy, was ruthlessly suppressed by the military junta, with hundreds of civilian deaths. That month the military did away with all trappings of civilian government, extended martial law, again banned all political activity, and closed universities and colleges.

Restoration of civilian government

The Fifth Republic

In August 1980 Chun Doo Hwan was elected president by the NCU. A new constitution, under which the president was limited to one seven-year term, was approved in October, ushering in the Fifth Republic. Martial law was lifted in January 1981, and in February Chun was elected president under the new constitution. As parties were again allowed to operate, a new ruling party, the Democratic Justice Party (DJP), was formed by former members of the DRP and NDP. Chun’s administration, however, had to endure a series of scandals and incidents—most notably the bombing by North Koreans in Rangoon, Burma (now YangônYangon, Myanmar), in October 1983 that killed several members of the South Korean government.

By 1987 popular dissatisfaction with the government had become widespread. To address this crisis, Roh Tae Woo (from 1985 chairman of the DJP) announced a program of constitutional reforms that would restore the democratic institutions and basic civil rights that had been usurped under military rule. Chun, compelled to accept this program, oversaw the drafting of a revised constitution, which was approved by a national referendum in October. Among its principal provisions were a reduction in the presidential term from seven to five years and the direct popular election of the president. Roh, a former army general, was elected president in December and took office in February 1988. With his inauguration, a peaceful transfer of power was effected for the first time in South Korean history, and the tortuous history of the Fifth Republic came to an end.

The Sixth Republic

In the much-improved political climate of the Sixth Republic, South Korea hosted the highly successful Summer Olympic Games in Seoul later that year. Roh proceeded to bring about a merger (1990) of the DJP with the Reunification Democratic Party of Kim Young Sam and the New Democratic Republican Party of Kim Jong Pil, who for a time had been prime minister during the Fourth Republic. The resultant Democratic Liberal Party (DLP) commanded a large majority in the National Assembly.

While it was reestablishing democracy in the domestic political arena, the Roh government initiated the so-called “northern diplomacy” policy toward the Soviet Union and its allies. These efforts brought about the establishment of diplomatic ties with Hungary, Poland, and Yugoslavia in 1989 and with the Soviet Union in 1990. Relations between South Korea and China improved as well, and in 1992 the two countries established full diplomatic ties. That December Kim Young Sam was elected president on the DLP ticket, and he succeeded Roh in February 1993.

Kim, the first civilian president in more than 30 years, sought to extricate the military from power and to reassert civilian supremacy over the military. Shortly after taking office, he purged thousands of bureaucrats, military leaders, and businessmen, released thousands of political prisoners, and launched a major anticorruption initiative (notably banning bank accounts under false names). Kim’s popularity surged, but a severe economic downturn and the continued entrenchment of corruption (Kim’s own son was arrested on charges of bribery and tax evasion) diminished his standing by the end of his term. He also oversaw a historic reform of local government. Local elections, which had been suspended indefinitely in 1961, were reinstated in limited fashion in 1991 and fully restored in 1995, allowing voters to choose governors and mayors of major cities. During Kim’s term his two predecessors, Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo, were arrested. Roh had shocked the country by admitting that he had amassed a political slush fund of some $650 million, and both men were convicted of corruption for having plotted the 1979 coup that had brought Chun to power and for treason in the massacre of protestors at Kwangju in 1980; Chun was sentenced to death, Roh to 22.5 years imprisonment (commuted to life imprisonment and 17 years, respectively). In addition, nine executives of South Korea’s chaebol (business conglomerates) were convicted of bribing Chun and Roh in return for government favours.

In December 1997 perennial opposition candidate Kim Dae Jung was elected president of South Korea, narrowly defeating the New Korea Party (NKP; the renamed DLP) nominee. Shortly after the election, Chun and Roh were pardoned in a gesture of goodwill, and on February 25, 1998, Kim was sworn in as president in the first peaceful transition of power to the opposition. Kim implemented a so-called “sunshine” policy with the North, which led in 2000 to a historic summit between Kim and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong Il, and to Kim Dae Jung’s selection as the recipient of that year’s Nobel Prize for Peace. Nevertheless, his administration was also plagued by corruption scandals, and his international policies met resistance from the United States. Still, in 2002 South Korea basked in the success of the World Cup association football (soccer) finals, which it cohosted with Japan and at which its national team played better than ever, and in the success of the Asian Games, which it hosted in Pusan.

In 2003 Kim was succeeded as president by Roh Moo Hyun of Kim’s Millennium Democratic Party. A lawyer, Roh was a strong supporter of democratic reforms and had established himself as a defender of leftist demonstrators. Roh faced intense opposition from the more conservative Grand National Party (the former NKP), and in 2004 he was impeached by the National Assembly. Roh temporarily withdrew from office while the Constitutional Court considered the charges. In parliamentary elections that year, his party captured a majority in the National Assembly; Roh was subsequently acquitted, and he resumed office. In the 2007 presidential election, the Grand National candidate, former Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak, won in a landslide. Legislative elections the following year gave the Grand National Party a slim majority in the National Assembly.

Relations with the North

Tensions between South Korea and the North remained high after the Korean War, exacerbated by such incidents as the assassination attempt on Park Chung Hee by North Korean commandos in 1968, the bombing in Rangoon in 1983, and the North’s destruction by time bomb of a South Korean airliner over the Thai-Burmese border in 1987. The first significant contact between the two states occurred in early 1972, when the Park government carried out secret negotiations with North Korea. A joint statement was issued in July that announced agreement on a formula for national reunification. The ensuing dialogue between North and South, however, was short-lived.

In the early 1990s there were again signs of rapprochement between the two Koreas. North-South relations appeared to reach a milestone when a pact of reconciliation and nonaggression was signed in December 1991. Earlier that year, North Korea had retreated from its insistence on a single, shared Korean membership in the United Nations, and the two states were separately admitted to the UN on September 17. North Korea’s nuclear weapons capabilities emerged as a source of anxiety for the South shortly thereafter. With the death of the North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in July 1994, hope was rekindled for further reconciliation and for a peaceful reunification of the peninsula, and in October the nuclear issue appeared settled when the North agreed to close an experimental nuclear reactor in exchange for the United States arranging for the financing and construction of two reactors capable of producing electrical power.

In 2000 many Koreans believed that the time might be near when the peninsula would be reunified. Kim Dae Jung’s sunshine policy led to a summit with the North Korean leader, and some families were permitted to travel across the border for reunions. In addition, since 2000, North and South Korean athletes have marched under a single flag showing an image of the peninsula during the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games and Asian Games. Nevertheless, relations subsequently soured as North Korea admitted it had continued developing nuclear weapons; in 2005 the North admitted that it possessed such weapons, and in October 2006 it tested its first nuclear device. Dialogue between the two sides continued, however, resulting in two significant events in 2007: in May trains from both the North and the South crossed the demilitarized zone to the other side, the first such travel since the Korean War; and in October Roh Moo Hyun met Kim Jong Il in P’yŏngyang for a second summit.

Economic and social developments

In the 1950s South Korea had an underdeveloped, agrarian economy that depended heavily on foreign aid. The military leadership that emerged in the early 1960s and led the country for a quarter century may have been autocratic and, at times, repressive, but its pragmatic and flexible commitment to economic development resulted in what became known as the “miracle on the Han River.” During the next three decades, the South Korean economy grew at an average annual rate of nearly 9 percent, and per capita income increased more than a hundredfold. South Korea was transformed into an industrial powerhouse with a highly skilled labour force. In the late 20th century, however, economic growth slowed, and in 1997 South Korea was forced to accept a $57 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—then the largest such rescue in IMF history. The country also wrestled with reforming the chaebol and liberalizing its economy. Nevertheless, its economy enjoyed a recovery in subsequent years, and the country entered the 21st century on a relatively firm economic footing.

South Korean society underwent an equally rapid transformation after the Korean War. The population more than doubled between the end of the war and the turn of the 21st century. Simultaneously, modern education developed rapidly, again with considerable government involvement but also because of the resurgence of the Korean people’s traditional zeal for education after decades of repression during the Japanese occupation period. The growth of educational institutions and of commercial and industrial enterprises in and around South Korea’s major cities attracted an increasing number of rural people to urban areas. Seoul, in particular, grew some 10-fold to about 10 million people between the end of World War II and the early 21st century. There was a corresponding growth in communications media, especially newspaper and magazine publishing. An ambitious program was also undertaken to expand and modernize the country’s transportation infrastructure.

The most conspicuous social change in South Korea, however, was the emergence of a middle class. Land reform carried out in the early 1950s, together with the spread of modern education and the expansion of the economy, caused the disappearance of the once-privileged yangban (landholding) class, and a new elite emerged from the ranks of the former commoners. Another significant social change was the decline of the extended-family system: rural-to-urban migration broke traditional family living arrangements, as urban dwellers tended to live in apartments as nuclear families and, through family planning, to have fewer children. In addition, women strenuously campaigned for complete legal equality and won enhanced property ownership rights.